Conventional personal computer keyboards generally have keys with fixed labeling. The key labeling can be textual, graphical, or a combination of both text and graphics. For example, many keyboards have auxiliary function keys with fixed key labels, such as “Web”, “Mail” or “Search”. While a wide variety of different functions can often be assigned to such keys, thereby providing users with useful shortcuts to frequently used functions, the presence of the fixed key labels can cause confusion if the assigned functionality of a key does not correspond to the key label. This confusion is further compounded by the fact that the auxiliary function keys can be programmed to have different functionality in different contexts. For example, a key with a “←” icon may cause a web browser application to move “back” to a previously-viewed web page, but may cause a word processor to “undo” the user's most recent action.
To address the confusion that arises when a user cannot remember which functions are assigned to which keys in which contexts, printed reference cards or help files stored on the personal computer and displayed on a computer monitor are sometimes used. However, these options are generally inconvenient for users, and thus several keyboards have been developed wherein a changeable message can be displayed on individual keys. The message can be textual or graphical, and can vary depending on the context in which the keys are used. For example, some attempted solutions to the foregoing problems provide individual programmable displays for each key, wherein the displayed information is changeable depending on context. However, many of these types of keyboards are expensive and difficult to fabricate, and so have not gained wide acceptance.